December

Another great Christmas, full of love, laughter and excitement. We started the month off with decorating the house, getting our Christmas tree, the appearance of our elf on the shelf, Elfis, and our daily advent calendar with fun things to do. We went to see Temecula's Santa's Electrical Parade with Grandma  and it was awesome, hopefully a new tradition for our family.

We also had a month of the flu around here, with Hunter passing it to me, and me to Chase. Luckily Skyler didn't catch it. 

Mid-month we went to see a Polar Express Light Show at the Riggans' house and went to take pictures with Santa and Hunter was able to tell him what he wanted for Christmas- "Wall Tracks". Hunter's preschool had a Christmas party and he had fun messing around with his buddies from class. We made Christmas cookies  and I made our traditional cinnamon buns and egg casserole for Christmas morning. 

Christmas Eve we went to Great- Grandma Marylou's like we do every year. We had fun with another white elephant game, ate some great food and got to see Santa Claus :)

Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our stockings and presents from Santa.  Chase and Hunter immediately set up his new toy and then Nana, Tom and Grandpa Pierce came over for more presents and breakfast.

In the afternoon we headed to Oma and Opas where we opened MORE presents, among the favorites were Skyler's Disney Princess push car, Hunter's Leap Pad, my new camera, Chase's new tool chest, and a new family dining table!!! Yes, we are absolutely spoiled.

Chrsitmas evening was spent with the whole Converse family, everyone was actually in one place at the same time! Especially with the 3 new little girls added this year, it was really fun to be together.

Here are some of our family photos we took a few months back...

We are looking forward to another great year in 2013!!!

November

We have been having fun getting ready for holidays and cooler weather around our house this month. Skyler is now crawling nonstop and climbing up onto everything and everyone. On November 11th she said her first words, "mama" then "dada" 15 minutes later. Now she says "nana" as well, and babbles all day long, she is so precious. She got her first taste of "Thanksgiving food" with some unsweetened sweet potatoes and had everyone laughing with her gag faces. We spent the holiday at my parents' house this year and had such a beautiful day eating outside, playing ping pong, and just being thankful for all the blessings in our lives and being together.

The salon is now finished and more beautiful than I imagined. Thank you, Monte and Nancy and Chase for helping make it all happen. I appreciate you all so much!! Now to get some clients in here and get to work :)

October

Hunter started preschool this month! Our little boy is growing up so fast. He attends "The Learning Center" here in Lake Elsinore, it's a program offered through our city Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12. He loves school, his new friends, and his teacher, Miss Lorena. The other parents and I volunteer in his class once a month and bring snack. Its a great addition to our week and gives me a little break and some one-on-one time with Skyler. 

These first 2 pics are Hunter's first day of school.

Halloween was fun this year, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch by our house again and went on all the rides and blow up activities. Skyler was a flower and Hunter was a "work man", he really wanted to be just like his Daddy:)

Hunter's school had a Halloween party for the kids where they all dressed up, had a parade, and took turns hitting a pinata. 

Unfortunately, Chase was out of town on Halloween day, but the kids and I made the best of it by going to Oma's classroom for a visit and Hunter got to walk in the parade along with the other kindergardeners. Look for the white hard hat in the middle of the group :)

Then we headed to Balboa Island with Grandma Converse and trick-or-treated with the Converses. Uncle Wayne was dressed as the scariest killer clown I've ever seen and walked on sky high stilts taking pictures with everyone all over the island. The kids were oddly not that afraid of him. I was.

And things are coming along on the salon. All the major construction items are pretty much finished, we were waiting for floors to completely dry before moving furniture in and then its just decorating and touch ups before business begins in December. I made a website called www.hairbytami.com and hope to build a clientele quickly over the next year. We hired a nanny this week that will come over during my business hours to watch our kids and my clients' kids while they receive their services. 

On another note, who is this little girl and what happened to my quiet, cuddly, still baby? Skyler is now nonstop wiggles and squeals, so much so that she doesn't even want to take 10 minutes to nurse anymore! Still sweet as ever, but much more active now. She started crawling, as of Nov 3rd! She has been scooting around the last month doing the army crawl and rolling, but now she is up on all 4s, and moving quicker every day. She even pushes herself up on her hands and feet and sticks her butt in the air, its really funny. She pulled herself up to standing for the first time the same day she crawled, in her crib. Luckily Chase was home and was able to lower the mattress so she wont be able to get out. Yikes! 

September

Happy birthday to our big 3 year old boy! We celebrated Hunter's birthday at our house with a Monster Truck party, complete with Grave Digger Pinata, tire and fire cake, monster jam game, lots of presents and lots of family and friends. Unfortunately my camera broke the morning of the party so I wasn't able to get any pictures, but was sent a few from family members.

We also went to the LA County Fair this month and had a great time seeing the animals, miniature trains, eating fair food and Opa even took Hunter on a monster truck ride! Skyler stayed awake almost the whole time looking at all the lights and attractions.

We celebrated a few other family birthdays this month; Nana's, Chelsea's 1st and Grandma MaryLou's 85th! 

Its been horribly hot all summer and its easy to hope for fall weather but we are trying to enjoy the heat as much as we can by swimming in our community pool and at home and visiting the the new park that just opened near our house with a splash pad. Its so fun to see Skyler being able to do new things now that she can sit up, like swinging; she loves it!

 I just had to add this last picture as a memory of mine. Hunter has always been so good about taking naps.. until now. He is starting to fight them and discovered new ways of occupying himself in his room than sleeping. (P.S. he was not wearing pajamas when I left, he decided to dress himself in pj pants and one sock) Its not funny at the moment, but I think I may look back and laugh one day?

August

August was awesome! We had so many fun things to do and spent a lot of good quality family time together. 

Chase turned 29 this month so we celebrated with a small BBQ with some of his friends at our house.

Then the next morning we got up bright and early and took the Catalina Flyer over to the small island just for the day. We had fun on the boat, had a great seafood lunch on the water, walked around the boardwalk and pier, and played on the beach. Hunter slept on Chase's lap on the boat ride home and woke up just in time to see some Dolphins swimming along side of us. Such a fun day.

The next week Papa and Grancy took Hunter and his cousins, Riley and Braden to Legoland for their birthday presents, and Jessica and I got to tag along! The kids loved going on all the rides, and playing in the splash zone.

Skyler is doing great as always. She is such a sweet baby, and can now sit up by herself for up to 20 seconds! She smiles all the time and laughs when tickled or when Hunter jumps around in front of her. She is eating fruits and vegetables now along with her rice cereal and breastmilk and hasn't found anything she doesn't like yet. We introduced the sippy cup this month and she really enjoys chewing on the spout and letting the water fall back out of her mouth. I was looking back at some baby pictures of her and was amazed at how different she looks already. She has lost almost all of the thick black hair she was born with (definately still a brunette though ;) and is plumping up with the perfect amount of baby fat. She is rolling all around the room in every direction and creeping a little bit with just her legs. When she figures out how to pull herself with her arms she will be moving fast. She also likes to sit in her walkers and johnny jump up while she watches her brother play.

 What a blessed life I have to be able to spend every minute with these 2 miracles while they are still young. I am thankful every day.